Cockroaches hit the shelves

04 May 2006

The long-winged great cockroach, Megaloblatta longipennis, has the second largest wingspan of around 185 millimetres.

Cockroach Studies, a new journal devoted entirely to the study of cockroaches, is launched. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Cockroach Studies is the world's first journal dedicated to these much-maligned insects.

Cockroach Studies - the first issue of the new journal published now.

'Cockroaches are fascinating attractive insects which have an unjustifiably bad reputation thanks to a few widespread pests,' said Dr George Beccaloni, the Natural History Museum's cockroach expert and deputy editor of Cockroach Studies.

Thousands of species

Worldwide, about 4,300 species of cockroach have so far been named and this is probably only 50 per cent of the total. Less than 30 of these are pests.

Captive breeding

Cockroach Studies is aimed at both scientists and enthusiasts who keep cockroaches as pets. It will publish information about cockroach ecology, biology and taxonomy as well as practical advice on how to breed them in captivity.

Madagascan hissing cockroaches are often kept as pets.

'Although there are quite a lot of people who keep exotic cockroaches as pets (such as giant Madagascan hissing cockroaches, shown right), very few people worldwide are doing any serious scientific work on the non-pest species. I hope that Cockroach Studies will show how interesting cockroaches really are and that it will encourage more people to study them,' said Beccaloni.

Living with ants

Cockroaches vary greatly in their size, colour and lifestyle. The smallest , the North American Attaphila fungicola , measures less than three millimetres long and lives in the nests of leafcutter ants.

Rhinoceros cockroach

The world’s heaviest cockroach is the wingless Australian rhinoceros cockroach.

The world's heaviestcockroach is the wingless Australian rhinoceros cockroach,Macropanesthia rhinoceros, which weighs up to 33.5 grammes and has a body length of up to 80 millimetres (shown right). It has one of the most complex lifestyles of all cockroaches and, with a lifespan of more than 10 years, it is among the longest lived of all insects.

A great set of wings

The largest winged cockroach is the Central and South American, Megaloblatta blaberoides , which has a wingspan of up to 185 millimetres (the picture at the top of the page shows the cockroach with the second largest wingspan, the closely relatedMegaloblatta longipennis ).

Three natives

The dusky cockroach, Ectobius lapponicus, is one of only three native British cockroaches.

These native species are never pests. The two main pests found in houses in Britain are tropical species that have been introduced accidentally, they are the German cockroach, Blattella germanica and the oriental cockroach, Blatta orientalis.